Penalties levied in clean air-related lawsuit against Somerset's Brayton Point power plant

Massachusetts environmental groups are trumpeting the settlement of a clean air-related lawsuit with the owners of the Brayton Point power plant in Somerset and say the pressure put on plant owners to comply with emissions laws hastened plans to close the plant.

The Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA

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Posted Oct. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 24, 2013 at 1:41 AM

Posted Oct. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 24, 2013 at 1:41 AM

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Massachusetts environmental groups are trumpeting the settlement of a clean air-related lawsuit with the owners of the Brayton Point power plant in Somerset and say the pressure put on plant owners to comply with emissions laws hastened plans to close the plant.

Brayton Point owners Energy Capital Partners earlier this month filed papers with electric grid operators signaling their plans to close the coal-fired plant by 2017.

Under a settlement announced Wednesday by environmental groups, the plant’s owners will need to develop a set of actions to remediate emissions violations and report on those efforts.

The plant must also install new soot monitoring equipment to ensure compliance, pay an $11,000 civil penalty to the state, and pay a $65,000 penalty to fund projects in Somerset, according to the Conservation Law Foundation.

CLF reported that co-plaintiffs Clean Water Action and Toxics Action Center will direct the $65,000 to be spent on local air quality improvement projects and to study site redevelopment options.

The three environmental groups filed suit in February and state and federal authorities subsequently took steps to enforce emissions limits at the plant.

“The terms we are agreeing to in this settlement ensure that, in its final years, Brayton Point will cease to violate the law by exceeding emissions limits,” CLF vice president Jonathan Peress said in a statement.

While Energy Capital Partners acquired Brayton Point in early September, a spokeswoman for the company said this settlement pertained to the prior owner.

Lisa Lundy of ECP said the provisions involved Dominion, based in Virginia, and the Conservation Law Foundation.